Monday, December 22, 2014

Stockholm Bloodbath

The Kalmar Union began in
the 14th century with the idea of one King for the three kingdoms of Sweden,
Denmark, and Norway, but each retaining its own laws and Council of Realm.
However, from a series of autocratic kings and failed campaigns against the
powerful Hanseatic League, fracture began to appear within the Union. Most
especially, Sweden became critical about its part within the Union. Sweden
resented the idea that their King ruled them from a foreign and distant city of
Copenhagen. They also hated the economic crisis brought by the anti-Hanseatic
League stand of the Kalmar Union Kings. Ever since, Sweden always became a
focal point of rebellion and a problem for the King of the Union.

During the late 1510’s,
Sweden was divided. Politically, it was split into two. Those who supported
Sweden continuing being part of the Kalmar Union in one. And the other were
those who supported Sweden’s independence from the Union. During the decade,
Sten Sture became the regent of the country and he was against Sweden continuing
part of the Kalmar Union. When he began to assert Swedish independence from the
Union, Copenhagen, the center of the Union reacted violently.

In 1520, the King of Denmark
and of the Kalmar Union, King Christian II invaded Sweden with his army. Sten
Sture’s army faced Christian’s army in the Battle of Bogesund. The battle
proved to be a disaster for the Swedish forces. During the course of the
battle, Sweden’s regent, Sten Sture, was wounded. He was then evacuated and
went back to Stockholm where he eventually died. Sten Sture’s wife and now
widow, Christina Gyllenstierna, took over and commanded the defense of
Stockholm from the impending attack of the Danish army. For months, Christina
stood her ground and led the defense of the capital. However, the siege resulted
to starvation and hardship. Stockholm was blockaded by land and by sea. All hopes
were lost. In September 1520, Christina surrendered the city of Stockholm to
Christian II in exchange for sparing the city and the lives of herself, the
citizens, and the Swedish nobility. Christian agreed.

A month later, Christian II
finally succeeded in unifying the Kalmar Union once more. In November of 1520,
Christian II was crowned as King of Sweden. He was crowned by one of his
staunches supporters in Sweden – Archbishop Gustavus Trolle. After the
coronation, a traditional three day celebration began. But behind the glitter
and joy of the banquets, Archbishop Trolle was plotting a devious and brutal
scheme. Not towards Christian II, but
towards those who in the Swedish nobility and clergy had gave him disgrace and
hardship.

Trolle’s anger towards some
Swedish nobles happened years before the 1520 Danish invasion of Sweden. In 1517,
Sten Sture launched a crackdown against those he deemed supporters of the Kalmar
Union and King Christian II. One of Sten Sture’s victim was Archbishop Gustavus
Trolle. Trolle was accused of being a supporter of the Kalmar Union. And in the
process, he lost all his titles. He also lost all his lands and his Castle
Staket demolished. He was disgraced and humiliated. He had the reason to be
angry towards the nobility who supported Sten Sture, and Sten Sture himself.
When Christian II landed in 1520, he welcomed the arrival of the Danish King
and supported him. After the fall of Stockholm, he moved to take his vengeance against
those who oppressed him in the past.

After the three day
coronation celebration, Trolle began to make his bloody plan work. He set up an
execution site in the Stortorget in Gamla Stan, Stockholm. He ordered the
arrest of several clergy and members of the Swedish nobility, most of which
were his enemies, and put them in trial for heresy. One way did it was to invite the nobles in a banquet with Christian II and had them arrested. A council made of 14 men
with Trolle served as judge for the allege heretics. The whole trial things was
nothing but a show and a formality. A judgment was already made beforehand.
They were all found guilty and sentenced to death.

The arrested nobles and
clergy were all shock with their arrest and their sentence. During the
surrender they were promised they would not be harmed or killed. They did not
anticipated that Trolle would do such a thing. Sten Sture’s widon, Christina,
protested against the authority of Trolle to head a religious trial. He used
the 1517 case against Trolle as a basis of Trolle losing his religious
authority and deemed that the decision was made by the people of Sweden.
Nevertheless, Christina’s defense was futile.

Trolle and his council’s
decision were then forwarded to King Christian for the execution of the
sentence. Christian knew he promised safety for the nobility and officials of
Stockholm in exchange of the city’s surrender. However, his amnesty had a
loop-hole. It did not cover religious crimes. In addition to the loop-hole, he
also granted Trolle and the church autonomy from the King. Hence, he could not
reverse the decision or reject it. Moreover, he also realized that most of the
sentenced were against Sweden’s part of the Kalmar Union. He saw the death as
part of cleaning up Sweden of those who opposed the Union. With this reasons,
he approved the executions.

Throughout November 8 and 9,
1520, the executions were carried out. Witness said that the ground of
Stortorget became red with the beheadings. It was a bloodbath.All in all, 82 fell prey to Trolle’s
execution spree. Two of which were archbishops. Also, members of the prominent
noble families, like the Vasas and the Gyllenstiernas, were among those
executed. Adding insult to injury, the bodies of the executed were burned in a
great pyre. Christian also made a revenge against Sten Sture by digging up his
body along with his child and threw them to the pyre as well. Trolle got all
his enemies killed except one – Christina Gyllenstierna.

Christina was spared by
Christian from the execution. As a sign of honoring the agreement he made with
Christina for the surrender of Stockholm, Christian decided to send her instead
back to Copenhagen and imprisoned there.Christian thought that with the
Stockholm Bloodbath, the ideas of Swedish independence from Kalmar Union was
dead, but he was very wrong. Instead of killing the flares of independence, he inflamed it further. He showed to the Swedes that he was nothing more than a
foreign invaders who went to Sweden to oppress the people and not to rule them.
The Swedes dubbed him Kristian Tyrann, Christian the Tyrant. The Stockholm
Bloodbath disgusted the Swedes and all Swedish nobles. And as a result,
Gustavus Vasa led a rebellion against Christian II and called for the
independence of Sweden. Eventually, he succeeded and in 1523, Gustavus was
crowned King of Sweden and the House of Vasa began to rule. Christian II and
Trolle’s plan backfired tremendously.

What happened to Christian
II and Trolle after the bloodbath was terrible karma. Christian II when the
Vasa’s came to power in Sweden, his rule in Denmark collapse and he was dethroned.
He attempted to retake and at his side was Gustavus Strolle who left Sweden in
1521 after his unpopularity caused him to leave. Strolle died in 1535, dead
from a battle under Christian II. Christian himself died in 1559, a man without
a crown and remembered as a brutal man. Both men were smeared by their acts
leading ot the Stockholm Bloodbath.See also: